I love sports. But what I don’t love is the use of sports as an analogy – or worse, as a metaphor – for business. The reason is simple: in sports – and in most competition – the winner is determined by what essentially is an...
Posts by Jeff Lesher
Among the all time great organizational behavior books are Patrick Lencioni’s The Five Dysfunctions of a Team; and it’s companion field guide, Overcoming the Five Dysfunctions of a Team. What makes the combination of these...
By now, chances are you may have heard about The New York Times front page, Sunday edition exposé about what a horrible place to work Amazon can be. I love Amazon … or, I should say, I love being able to buy my Peet’s coffee...
In life, when something happens to us, usually a not-so-good something, we’re often told: “Don’t take it personally.” What junk advice (in most cases). Of course, you should take it personally … it’s personal! There are...
I'm a sucker for a great line, especially when put to equally great music. Fred Neil hit the Exacta Box with his Grammy Award-winning song (for Vocal Performance by Harry Nilsson), "Everybody's Talkin'." Nilsson's version of the...
Years ago, I was asked point blank by my boss’ boss’ boss if I thought we should fire my boss and hire someone else in his place. Awkward! We needed to – my boss was hurting our business, inside and out. I knew this, the person...
One of our values at SHIFT is to help our clients share information to better engage and enable their people to drive the performance of their organization. We call the construction of regularly held, intentional conversations...
The current spotlight shone on the Confederate Flag in the wake of the senseless, race-driven murders in Charleston, South Carolina, is one we would benefit from widening, just a bit, to illuminate any number of other aspects...
My colleague, Emily Cosgrove, recently blogged about the value and impact of employee surveys – if you listen and you act on what you hear. A former colleague of mine, measurement guru Joe Folkman, liked to say, “Only ask about...
